Formula 1 is a worldwide racing association which has been around for quite some time and has produced such big names as Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda and many others. F1 is a global phenomenon that features twenty races around the world in a single season. From Japan to Mexico, France to Australia, Russia and United Arab Emirates, the championship features tracks in different parts of the globe.
While the United States used to host this prestigious race in the past, the last city to host Formula 1 was Indianapolis back in 2007. After the race of 2007, Formula 1 left the US and did not come back until five years later when in 2012 Austin became the new host city. The race is held at the Circuit of the Americas, or COTA for short, located approximately ten miles from the city limits. It makes COTA a convenient place to host the race with spectators being able to stay in Austin and not spending a lot of time on driving back and forth.
Each of the twenty races featured in one season usually consists of multiple events spanning a full weekend, or three days. The activities begin with free practices on Friday, followed by qualifications on Saturday, and the actual race taking place on a Sunday. To fully experience the Formula 1 weekend, we decided to get a general admission pass for the entire weekend.
General admission ticket is the cheapest way to get inside. While you do not have a reserved seat in the stands you are free to bring lawn chairs or blankets and claim any patch of grass along the track. There are numerous general admission zones throughout the track so you will definitely be able to find a spot for yourself. Obviously, zones with better views and turns get more attention from the visitors so you might need to come early to guarantee yourself a good spot.
Day 1: Free Practices
Our racing weekend began at 7AM on a Friday when we left Houston and set course to Austin and the Circuit of the Americas. There is generally nothing exciting happening during the first day of the weekend. At least nothing exciting that would be related to the race itself. Drivers are given two separate hours for their practice runs, so there is a total of two hours worth of racing on the first day. Besides free practices for Formula 1 drivers, there were also free practices and even qualifying events for other racing series that were present during the weekend, Formula 4 and Masters Historic racing.
Formula 4 is a series that is designed for more junior drivers to get racing experience before moving up to the big leagues. What is different from Formula 1 is that Formula 4 is not a global championship series. Rather each country can organize and hold its own championship series as long as it follows set rules and regulations. Masters Historic Championship offers its viewers a look at the cars of the past. The racing is performed exclusively by the cars from the Golden Era of Formula 1 from 1960s to the 1980s.
So while Friday’s schedule consisted only of free practices and qualifications for different racing series, it was obvious that it would not attract as many visitors as Saturday and Sunday. The main point of attending Friday’s event, however, lies in something not related to what’s happening on the track. Organizers have put autograph sessions for major teams such as Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull, for Friday and as such most of the people who came out to COTA were there mostly to see their favorite drivers in person and get a piece of memorabilia signed.
Mercedes and Red Bull were giving out autographs at the same time so we did not even attempt to make it to the front of the stage as people have been camping out there for hours. Given that Mercedes has been miles ahead of all the others in terms of performance for the past couple of years, that team drew a huge crowd by itself. Add Red Bull which has a large fan base as well and you have a madness. We decided to stay away from the crowd and watched the events unfold from safe distance. After all, we were more determined to get autographs from Ferrari and its drivers as we are supporters of an Italian team.
As soon as the autograph session for Mercedes and Red Bull was over and the crowd started dispersing, we made it to the front of the stage to wait for team Ferrari. The scheduled autograph session was not supposed to start for another three hours but we were determined to get an autograph from Kimi Raikkonen, who is my fiancée’s favorite driver. Therefore we wanted to make sure that we were standing in the first line of the crowd for the greater chance to get an autograph from Ferrari’s drivers. At the time of the scheduled autograph session, Kimi came out for a couple of minutes only to sign a handful of fans’ items before disappearing behind the stage. We were informed that Sebastian Vettel, the other driver on Ferrari’s team, would come out in an hour. Apparently there was a team meeting that just had to be held at that time. One hour later, only Vettel came out to the fans. He was actually pretty nice to the fans and spent about half an hour signing different memorabilia and giving out autographs. We were very disappointed to not get an autograph from Raikkonen, but whatever, Vettel is a four time Formula 1 champion so it was nice to see him so close and get an autograph.
After our prolonged wait and by the time the autograph session finally came to an end, it was already 6PM. At that point, all of the racing activities have been completed and there was nothing else to do at the track. We made our way to Austin, checked into our Airbnb located in the heart of University of Texas campus and went out for a dinner. We wanted to go to 6th Street and grab a drink, but we were so exhausted from waking up early and spending the entire day walking and standing, that we decided to call it an early night and get rested before Day 2.
Day 2: Qualification and Other Racing Events
The second day of the racing weekend is dedicated mostly to the qualification race that takes place in the afternoon and which determines the order in which the drivers start the main race. Given the importance of a good qualification, this is an important event and is generally attended by more people than the events happening the day before. Since the organizers moved the qualification event to late afternoon, we figured we could sleep in a little and got to the track around noon. The qualification race was scheduled for 4PM with some of the races for Formula 4 and Masters Historic racing scheduled before that time. These races are much shorter and are generally thirty minutes long.
We spent our time before the qualification watching Formula 4 and trying to find some reasonably priced food. If there is one complaint from me in terms of the event organization it would be related to how ridiculously overpriced the food was. Vendors seemed to agree on the pricing level so all of the dining options costed more or less the same. I am used to vendors overcharging spectators at different kind of events, pricing food and beverages higher than usual. COTA, however, beats them all! Eighteen dollars for a turkey leg, fifteen dollars for a burger with no sides, a side of mac ’n’ cheese for thirteen dollars, and that is not all of it!
After the qualification itself, there was one more event that was scheduled for Saturday. Justin Timberlake was set to perform live at 6PM. As qualification race ended around 5PM, we started making our way to the concert entrance. If I had to pick the second worst thing about the Formula 1 weekend it would be the gigantic lines… It is expected as tens of thousands of people attended the race, however, it was discouraging to see the long line to the entrance an hour before the gates were supposed to be open.
Either way, we finally made it into the concert area around 6:30PM and found a nice and cozy spot on the lawn. We had to wait another half an hour before the show actually began. Only it was not Justin, it was the warm up band called Shadowboxers. They were actually pretty good and we enjoyed listening to them for about thirty minutes. After they were done, the crowd was all warmed up and ready for the main event.
But not so fast, kiddos! JT did not take stage until 8:30PM. But all was forgiven when he took the stage and the show began. While the actual performance was not the most fantastic experience of my life, the show Justin put together with all the lights and the special effects was rather spectacular. Plus it was essentially free since the concert is included in the price of the ticket. So I am not the one to complain! The show lasted roughly an hour and with the concert being finished, so was the second day of the weekend.
Day 3: Race Day
Sunday, or the race day, is generally dedicated to the race itself and all of the activities that are held on this day are related to the main event. There were, however, the second Masters race and the Formula 4 race which were held on a Sunday this year. Since the main event is the essence of the entire weekend, those attendees who purchased general admission tickets (us included) showed up early in order to grab good spots on the hills around the race track. Since general admission does not have reserved seating, the seat you get is directly related to how early you are willing to get to the track.
We got to COTA at 8:30AM, the time the gates were supposed to open. The gates, however, did not open until a little after 9AM. I am not sure what was the reason behind the delay, but there was quite a line gathered outside. The weather did not do us any favors either. It was storming really hard in the morning and by the time we made it to the track everything was wet and muddy. Once inside, we made our way towards the spot that we have identified in previous days, right at the Turn 1. This was a great spot because you could see the start of the race, the first turn and other turns throughout the racetrack due to elevation of the area. This was a very popular spot and it was soon overtaken by other people with general admission bracelets. In a matter of one hour the whole hill at Turn 1 was claimed by numerous lawn chairs and blankets.
Leaving my fiancée to guard our seats, I walked to the amphitheater for another autograph session. This time it was a session for lesser known teams so the crowd was not big by all means. I got to the stage ten minutes before the start of the session and still managed to stand so close that I was guaranteed an autograph. The reason I came to the session was to get an autograph from the Russian driver Daniil Kvyat who represents Toro Rosso. It was good timing too. As of the moment I am writing this blog post, he has been dropped and replaced by the team. So thank you for the memories, it was nice to have some Russian presence in F1! Besides Toro Rosso, American-based HAAS and Force India were scheduled to appear at this session. Force India drew some attention from the crowd as one of the drivers for that team is Sergio Perez from Mexico. Since Texas has a large Mexican population and given its close proximity to Mexico itself, there was quite a big group of fans who came out to see Sergio.
After getting a handful of autographs I went back to our seats at Turn 1. At that point we still had three hours until the race but there was not much to do since we were kind of attached to our seats. So we just grabbed some lunch and beers and sat there waiting for the race. An hour and a half before the race, there was a drivers’ parade. All of the Formula 1 drivers got in a bed of a large 18-wheeler truck and slowly proceeded across the track. Then there was a performance by a Texas A&M marching band and finally all of the cars got on a track to line up for the start.
The start to the race was a fantastic feeling. All of the people around us on their feet, yelling, waving flags and hats, waiting for those lights to turn green. Finally, green lights across the board and twenty cars revving its engines in a race to that crucial first turn. The race turned out to be very interesting with many different events taking place. There were overtakes, cars getting off-track and not being able to continue, as well as a lot of changes in the standings. The race lasted almost two hours but there was never a dull moment. We spent majority of the time on our feet as we were excited to see what was going on around the track.
About five laps before the end of the race we grabbed our belongings and rushed down to the start line. Once the race ends, the gates to the track are opened in order to let the fans onto the track for the award ceremony. I think that this is really cool as you get to see the ceremony with your own eyes and experience what it’s like to be on the race track. It was unfortunate that we missed the end of the race as there were some interesting events that unfolded in the last lap. But you can just re-watch the race on TV, but you will not get another chance to wander around the Formula 1 race track. By the time we got to the gate, there was already a crowd there. After some shoving and tackling around, we were finally on the track. Even though there were a lot of people, surprisingly, it was not packed too tightly and we had plenty of space to stand in peace and observe the ceremony.
After the ceremony we stayed on the track for another half an hour, walking around, taking pictures and just enjoying the atmosphere. What I loved the most about Formula 1 experience is that all of the people who attended the event (at least those who I saw) were nice to each other and there were not any conflicts or fights which are a common sight at the large events that involve a lot of alcohol. Supporters of different teams were joking around and having a good time with each other. And I believe that it is a sign of true class!
There was one more event scheduled for Sunday after the race which was a Stevie Wonder’s concert on the other side of the track. But we were so exhausted and drained from the weekend’s activities that we decided to call it a day. We still had a three hour ride to Houston ahead of us, plus we don’t know any of Mr. Wonder’s songs, so we figured we are not missing out on much. With that, we got to our car, packed our things and kissed COTA goodbye. It was a fun and action packed weekend and I am glad that I got to experience Formula 1 firsthand!
